2016/2017 SNOOKER AWARDS – PART 1

For those who are watching the BBC hoping that somehow Mark Selby and John Higgins are playing to the best of 59 frames and unwilling to leave the safe cocoon of snooker and into the fire of tiresome political debate of strong and stable and strong and stable and strong and oh look, Diane Abbott has her calculator……… WELL LOOK NO FURTHER!

Since the World Snooker Awards dinner is on tomorrow night (or more likely the Mark Selby Appreciation Night), now seems like a lovely time to open up the highlights of this chaotic season: a season of wonderful memories, classic cock-ups and record-breaking performances. This will be a mix of positive and piss-take awards in no particular order whatsoever and this will all be fun and games, so let’s begin!

IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE SEASON – ZHOU YUELONG

With a lot of rookies who made it to the Top 64 after their two-year card, you see their true colours as a professional if they struggle or worse, relegated from the professional tour again. We have seen it this season with Oliver Lines, who finishes the season No. 60 and Ian Burns at No. 66, who qualifies next season via one-year ranking but losing all of his wonderful points in the process.

Zhou on the other hand just entered the Top 32 for the first time, ranked at No. 32. There has been so much talk on how these Chinese youngsters will dominate the game, but he showed that his deserves to be among the future elite by reaching at least the Last 32 ten times, including two Last 16 places and a quarter-final appearance in the Welsh Open before being whitewashed by Scott Donaldson and managed to beat the odds to qualify for the World Championships. Defeating Ben Woollaston in the decider is no mean feat, Though he did lose to in-form idol Ding Junhui 10-5 in the opening round.

Liang (winning the English Open), Grace (jumped 16 places) and Wells (leapt 25 places to break into the Top 64 for the first time) are among my selection, but for a 19-year-old to not lose his head at this stage of his snooker career makes him worthy of the title.

Nominations: Liang Wenbo, David Grace, Daniel Wells

ROOKIE OF THE SEASON – YAN BINGTAO

Who else was going to get this spot, honestly?

This 17-year-old has won 63% of his matches in his first ever season, beating the likes of Mark Davis, Mark Selby, Shaun Murphy and Liang Wenbo this season. He’s reached the Last 32 five times, the Last 16 five times and the quarter-finals of the German Masters before losing to Stuart Bingham. What’s more, he became the 5th 17-year-old to qualify for the Crucible and was very unlucky to lose to Murphy 10-8, especially when a fluke led to a match-winning break after coming back from 9-5 down. We all knew he was a talent anyway since he won the Amateur World Snooker Championship at the age of 14. The fact that he is now ranked No. 56 in the world at his age is fairly special. The question is now: how far up the rankings will he go?

Nominations: Sam Craigie, Zhao Xintong

‘OH THAT’S JUST CARELESS‘ MOMENT OF SEASON – ROB SPENCER

Don’t recognise the name? Not surprising, he is a snooker referee. I think you know, where this is now going……….

Snooker Shoot-Out. The first prestigious ranking event that no-one agreed with. The new ranking tournament would require a better standard of officiating. So imagine the uproar when Rob Spencer failed to penalise Xiao Guodong for being out of time of the 10-second shot limit and despite various signals, warning signs, the Angry Farmer David Gilbert jumping up and down in fury, Rob Spencer failed to notice any of that due to crowd noise and Xiao went on to win the match, becoming the eventual runner-up to Anthony McGill.

This hammered home reasons as to why Shoot-Out be a ranking event, with some arguing that the yobbish behaviour is preventing referees from doing their job. But you got to admit, there are so many signs that the referee missed out on especially Gilbert’s opportunity to win £32,000 at such a crucial stage and that is definitely careless. Much more than Mark King forgetting his goddamn cue!

Nominations: King forgetting his cue; Xiao sleeping through his qualifying match

SHOT OF THE SEASON – MARK KING

Ahhh yes, this was clearly Shot Number 32,854 in the Six-Red World Championship, where there was a wonderful thin shot on the left-hand side of the reds near the…..

For god’s sake. This is the award that will have every different opinion based on favouritism or recent memory BUT THIS IS MY AWARDS CEREMONY. When I wrote this I thought of three shots that were incredible this season, based on skill and circumstance:

3rd: Judd Trump vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan; European Masters

Superb long blue to position himself on the red. Very risky, as if he missed, he would most likely lose the match at 6-8 down. Came back to win 9-8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g_ncSo26lg&t=8s (2:33)

2nd: Shaun Murphy vs. Ronnie O’Sullivan; World Championship

Exhibition shot that the BBC won’t stop going on about, but it is an incredible shot to pot the red to position himself on the blue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/39660136

1st: Mark King vs. Barry Hawkins; Northern Ireland Open

Needing a snooker behind Hawkins, King played a belter of a safety shot to get the pink off the cushion as close to the black as possible, which is very close to the pocket to force the mistake out of his opponent to give him the possibility to winning the frame when winning 8-7 up. Expertly judged to perfection!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkLRe15lf7I&t=66s (0:47)

MAGICAL MOMENT OF THE SEASON – ANTHONY HAMILTON

Many magical moments have happened. Mark Selby winning the World Championship. Thepchaiya FINALLY scoring the first 147 after failing to pot the black in his previous two appearances. Mark King winning his first title in one of the emotional interviews that would warm the White Witch’s heart and Liang Wenbo hopping like a kangaroo on heat before holding the English Open trophy.

But who can ignore Anthony Hamilton finally winning the German Masters. Here’s why it was the magical moment for me. The Sheriff of Pottingham had the “best player never to win a ranking title” for so long, and since he finished outside of the Top 64 last season, it looked as if it was going to stick for a very long time.

He had the toughest draw to go through too, beating McGill, Boonyarit Keattikun Mark Williams, Selby, Hawkins, Stuart Bingham and finally defeating Ali Carter 9-5 in the final. He also became the oldest winner of a ranking event since Doug Mountjoy in 1989. What’s lovely is how lackadaisical, amusing and modest he seemed during the interviews and the fact that his family just happened to be there too just made it extra special.

PART 2 WILL SOON BE COMING UP! YOU NOW HAVE PART TWO: 2016/2017 SNOOKER AWARDS – PART 2